Two new improvements to announce on this, your favorite site about World of Warcraft. First of all, iPhone and iPod touch users will likely be happy to see that this site, along with all the others in the Joystiq network, are now equipped with Webclip icons (these are epic icons with a +15 to stamina, which any iPhone user will appreciate). Just make a Webclip with the browser on your iPhone or iPod touch, and our shiny icon will automatically appear on your home screen.
I like it when people spend a little time to gussy up their guild's raiding pictures. A good, detailed guild kill picture (like the one from Order of the Raven on Aggramar above), is like a nice little postcard, a souvenir for everyone on the raid. If your guild has a particularly nice or well designed kill shot, send it to wowguildwatch@gmail.com (along with your drama, downed, and recruiting tips as always) and we might have a whole gallery of them to show off next week.
In the meantime, click the link below to get your weekly dose of drama, downed, and recruiting news. It's all the guild action you'd want, without ever signing a charter!
This year, Elizabeth and I headed off to Atlanta, GA to cover Dragon*Con. In its 20th year, Dragon*Con is the United States' largest Pop Culture themed 4-day geek-fest, to put it mildly. While you won't get official numbers from the organizers past 20,000 participants, we heard whispers of numbers well over 40k in attendance if you counted each membership separately as opposed to combining the single-day passes like they do.
For our first year, we primarily set out to spread the WoW Insider love and get to know the community. That said, the reception and excitement we got from the Dragon*Con community at seeing us there overwhelmed both Elizabeth and I. It has ensured that we'll both be back in 2008 to cover all the myriad World of Warcraft goings on for WoW Insider! (As well as ensuring that we'll be back to help run the First Annual Dragon*Con MMO Costume Contest, slated for 2008!)
To check out a condensed recap of this year's various events, as well as the two (enormous) photo galleries chock full of various sights from D*C 2007, join me after the jump!
Here are even more pictures from the floor of the BlizzCon exhibition hall, including tournament action, pictures from the various exhibitor booths (Richard A. Knaak is in here, as well as the artists hanging out and creating artwork at the Upper Deck booth, and even one shot of the Nvidia girl.
Additionally, I'll be adding pictures to this gallery throughout day 2, so keep checking back to see what else there is to see in BlizzCon's main exhibition hall.
The community managers showed up on the PTR on Friday, and as you might imagine, chaos ensued. Eyonix appeared as a level one gnome, and he and Tseric both got invited to a player guild, where they chatted with players for a couple of hours. I don't know if any actually battleground matching systems got tested (that was originally their reason for showing up), but apparently lots and lots of people got killed by Gruul, Baron Rivendare, and even Nefarian appearing in Lower City Shattrath.
Hopefully a CM event like this (as has happened before, when the expansion beta ended) signals that the end of the PTR (and the patch going live) is right around the corner.
I don't think I've ever seen a forum thread that has promised so much, and yet delivered so little-- so far. Then again, if ths above image of Hogger is all that ever comes out of this thread, it'll all be worth it.
Caela on Earthen Ring has kicked off a "Draw Your Favorite NPC" contest, and it has the potential to be legendary. So far, there are only two pictures submitted-- the one above is amazing, and it's by Arity of ER. The other one is of Cookie McWeaksauce, and it's drawn by Umilluer, also of ER.
Now, the contest (though, as Caela says, it's really more of an exercise) doesn't end until Saturday the 21st, so I'd expect that people might still be working on their pictures-- hopefully we'll see a lot more of these. In the meantime, if you've got pictures for the contest, throw them in the comments below, or put them on that forum post. It'll be tough to beat that Hogger picture, I know, but if you've got any interest in drawing your favorite NPC (I'd draw High Overlord Saurfang if I had any artistic skillz whatsoever), please, please do so.
Personally, I can't say that I'm real thrilled about the upcoming WoW TCG, partly because I've never really caught on to the whole CCG thing, and partly because I'm confused and frightened by any interaction with human beings that doesn't exist in a purely virtual world. Nope, it's just plain ol' online WoW for me!
But I'm sure that a number of you are interested in the game, and that's why I got in touch with my friend Chris, who attended last weekend's GenCon in Indianapolis. He doesn't play WoW, or know much about the game, but he did send this along:
"So yesterday I had a chance to check out the WoW TCG booth (or at least the Upper Deck booth? My mind is still spinning from the sensory overload). Anyway, they had demos going on, but only 4 at a time. I didn't try to get in, but quizzed a worker standing there. What he would tell me, is that the game comes out in October, there will be a starter pack, and boosters, they hadn't worked out the cost yet, and if I wanted to know more I should try a demo. I watched one for a bit, but being a total noob regarding WoW, and most TCG/CCGs in general, it didn't really tell me how the game was. The cards looked nice, and the people seemed to be soaking it in. One guy in another gaming session told me he had tried it and thought it was quite intuitive."
Not exactly a groundbreaking preview, I'll agree, but a valiant try for someone simply doing me a favor. Maybe it'll whet your already drooling palates for the game when it finally hits store shelves on 10/25.
And speaking of drooling, Chris also sent along a nice set of pics of what he saw at the booth for you all to drool over. Feast your eyes on exclusive pictures of the actual card game itself, right after you click the link below. And don't forget, if you have any impressions of the game at GenCon (or pictures better than these-- unlikely!), drop us a note at the "Send us news tips" link over on the sidebar.
Behold, Blizzard CMs Tseric and Drysc! (left and right) Linsha from Muradin (looking happy in the middle-- the one without the pink hair) caught the two at GenCon showing off the new WoW CCG (she also caught Eyonix and Caydiem last year). Drysc looks like he'd be a fun guy to hang out with on an MC run, but Tseric, as many players point out, looks like he's a little too twitchy on the "BANNED!" button. Unfortunately Linsha didn't get a shot of Nethaera-- apparently he she* got left back at Blizzard HQ to fend off greedy requests for loot.
As far as I know, we don't have any internal operatives currently at GenCon playing the game, but if you're there and checking it out, feel free to send a few tips our way on what you thought of it (use the "Send us news tips" link over on the sidebar). I am working on contacting one source who's there right now, but I'm not sure I can get this darned gnomish communicator working right-- it keeps connecting me to something that sounds like a robot chicken..
*Update: Whoops. Sorry Neth. That's what happens when we don't get pics of you!
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